We Can't Go Back

The Hero in My Story

When everyone left the room, Pietro stood awkwardly by the end of her bed. He wasn't looking at her but at his fidgeting hands.

"Piet, sit down," she said as she nodded to the seat next to her. He automatically complied but still didn't meet her eyes.

"Will you look at me?" She asked. He slowly met her gaze and for a moment, she wished he didn't at the pure look of anguish in his eyes.

"You could have died," he said.

"Yes, I could have. But you would have died if I didn't pull you out," she said evenly.

"You don't know that," he argued.

"I only probably took half the bullets you would have taken and you wouldn't have even survived the bullets I took. You're enhanced but your healing isn't like what mine is. The only human who could have survived those injuries other than me is Steve," she explained.

Bucky's healing wasn't even as fast as her and Steve. Pietro would have surely died if he had sustained those wounds. Not that she calculated all of that before she took the shots for him. She just acted in that moment.

"Why'd you risk it for me? I was a stranger," he said.

It was a fair question. She'd like to think that she would have done that for anyone and maybe she would. However, she didn't know if her reaction would have been as fast if it was anyone else. Her subconscious screamed 'not him!' And the next second, she was over to him.

"You didn't feel like a stranger. There's something about you and Wanda that feels like an echo in time. I see you and I see my brother. Not the brother I see now but the brother I grew up with. My bond with Steve is still as strong as ever but it was simpler back then. We were simpler back then," she explained.

"Wanda and I have superpowers. I don't think we qualify as 'simple'," he said.

"Simple is the wrong word. I just mean, you remind me of how we were before decades of trauma and war. We lost our parents too and all we had was each other for a while. You have a bond with Wanda that you have never been able to explain, right? It's stronger than people would understand. That's how it is with Steve and I," she said.

"Whenever we explained it to people, we would just get skeptical looks or people would brush it off. We stopped explaining it after a while."

She knew what he meant. When they were little, she would always cry when Steve cried and vice versa even if they weren't in the same room. They could understand each other with just a look. Some people could claim that was just due to proximity but they knew when the other was in pain or in trouble as well. No one understood, not even Bucky as much as he tried to.

"Wanda mentioned you had the same bond. She showed me that our bonds were physically manifested just like yours. Someone else understood for once and there was an explanation. It also showed me that you were to Wanda what Steve is to me. Vital. I couldn't let someone walk the earth knowing the same pain I felt when I thought I lost Steve. So when you were in danger, I just reacted," she said.

"So you saved me for Wanda?" He asked. She reached out a grabbed his hand and squeezed it in hers.

"I saved you because you deserved to be saved. You deserve to be there for your sister. You deserve to be a friend. You deserve to be a part of this family, no matter how dysfunctional it can be. You deserve the world, Piet."